P-47 Thunderbolt
Page 3
Only one Eighth Air Force unit, the 56th Fighter Group, still used P-47s in 1945. That famous “Zemke’s Wolf Pack” won the highest score of any Eighth Air Force group: 674 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air and 311 on the ground. Francis Gabreski and Robert Johnson won 28 air victories each on 153 and 91 combat missions, respectively. In both cases, all victories were over enemy fighters.
When the new R-2800-57 “C” series Wasp offering 2,800-hp war emergency power became available, four
P-47D-27-RE aircraft fitted with the new Wasps and 13-foot Curtiss propellers were designated YP-47M. This installation was ordered in September for the last 130 P-47D-30-RE aircraft, which were delivered as P-47M-ls in December 1944. They were rushed to England for the 56th Fighter Group, but engine problems delayed their use until April 1945.
One YP-47M was actually completed as the XP-47N, using a new larger wing designed to accommodate additional fuel. This conversion had been ordered May 19, 1944, as it was realized that P-47D range limits, less than those of the P-38L or P-51D, made it less suitable for Pacific warfare.
Confidence in the Republic design, whose new wing had also been tried on the XP-47K, was such that 1,900 P-47Ns were ordered June 30, 1944, before the XP-47N flew July 22. The first P-47N-l-RE appeared in September, and 24 were delivered by the year’s end. Farmingdale completed 1,667 P-47Ns before the Thunderbolt line closed in December 1945. Production in Evansville on the P-47D-30/-40-RA continued until July 1945, followed by 149 P-47N-20-RAs before VJ Day canceled the rest of the contract.
Heaviest single-engine fighter used in action, the P47N had an automatic pilot and could carry up to 1,156 gallons in internal and drop tanks. A radius of action of 1,000 miles was possible, provided the pilot’s physical condition permitted a solo flight of nine or more hours. Alternately, ten 5-inch rockets or three 1,000-pound bombs could augment the eight .50-caliber guns with 2,136 rounds, in attacks on surface targets. Pilot protection included 112 pounds of metal armor and 28 pounds of armor glass.
The P-47N was first used in the Pacific by the 318th Group, which flew them from Hawaii to Le Shima, off Okinawa. On May 25, this group destroyed 34 Japanese aircraft without loss to themselves. They were joined on Le Shima by the 413th and 507th Groups by July 1, while another P-47N group, the 444th, was established on Iwo Jima in July. The last missions were flown in August.
The Thunderbolt production total of 15,683 is the largest in American fighter plane history, but is not as large as those for the Bf 109, Spitfire, or Yak series fighters abroad. There were 31 AAF P-47 groups in combat areas by the end of 1944, and a peak AAF inventory of 5,595 planes in May 1945. Average unit cost in 1945 was $83,000.
Lend-lease provided Britain with 240 P-47D-22-RE razorbacks as the Thunderbolt I, while the Thunderbolt II with the bubble canopy included 120 P-47D-25-RE, 420
P-47D-30-RE, 45 P-47D-30-RA and one P-47D-40-RA allocations. Two RAF Thunderbolt Is and four IIs were tested in the UK, 22 Thunderbolt Is and 48 IIs went to the MAAF, while 215 Thunderbolt Is and 534 IIs were shipped directly to India and began operations on the Burma front in September 1944 with 12 squadrons equipped by the war’s end.
France was sent 446 P-47Ds to serve seven fighter squadrons, and they began operations over France on June 15, 1944. Three P-47D-10-REs flown to the Soviet Union via Alaska in October 1943 were to be followed by 100 P-47D-22-RE, shipped beginning in February 1944, and 100 P-47D-27-RE. Of these, 188 reached Russia via the Persian Gulf route, to serve Army regiments, and 72 were given to Soviet Navy regiments, replacing the P-39s of the 255th IAP, which escorted the Northern Fleet’s 5th MTAD Division bombers.
Brazil received 66 P-47D-25/30-REs that served the Brazilian fighter squadron that began operations in Italy on October 14, 1944, the only Latin American air unit in Europe. Mexico’s 201st Fighter Squadron flew ground support missions in the Philippines, beginning June 5, 1945, using 30 P-47Ds seconded from the Fifth Air Force, and got 25 new P-47D-35-RA after the war, in November 1945.
After the war’s end, Thunderbolts continued to serve Air Force and National Guard units. One group, the 86th, remained in Germany with P-47Ds until it became the only USAF fighter group in Europe when the Berlin blockade began in 1948. Turkey received 180 P-47Ds beginning in March 1948, and Portugal got 50 in January 1952.
With the system of post-war alliances, the P-47D also became the standard fighter of Iran, with 60 delivered in 1949, and Yugoslavia (126). China had one P-47D group, and 116 second-hand aircraft were also allocated to Italy, beginning in December 1950.
The P-47D was chosen to supply Latin American countries and beginning in June 1947, Brazil got 30 P-47D-40-RA, Peru 25 P-47D-30-RA, and Ecuador 12 P-47D-30-RA. Columbia received eight Thunderbolts in 1947 and 12 more in 1949, while Venezuela got six in 1947 and 22 in 1949.
Another allocation in 1952-1953 gave Brazil another 25 P-47D-40-RA, Peru 19, Ecuador 12, and Columbia 14. Cuba received 27 and the Dominican Republic also received 25 P-47Ds. The Chinese on Taiwan received 190 of the P-47N model.
The last time the big Republic fighter fired its guns was during the overthrow of the Guatemalan government in June 1954. American pilots employed by the CIA flew attacks using several of seven P-47Ns secretly transferred to the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua.
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